my friend’s surgery was “good” (friend’s word); now he’s recovering, the recovery being complex and uncomfortable
thank you for prayers and good thoughts; any such that could be offered or given toward recovery would be really appreciated—Christopher
2 poems that deal in prayer
what we ask
I sin
and God is with me
loving me
though not approving
I don’t think
I ask the psalmist’s ask
and will receive
not
because I’m David
or a prophet or
a choirmaster for the court
but because
I ask
and God is love
(say from Psalm 51)
in prayer
and
do we get what we ask
gee
I don’t know
though if I had to guess I’d
say
the answer’s yes
yes
we do
all
right
unless we ask for evil
or we make evil
sinful good
and so deceive ourselves and then
beseech
but
you know
God’s rather smart
having
invented smart
and though God’s old
there’s nothing feeble to typify
as
sometimes we stay keen
all the way through
and God
stay keen forever
having
invented keen
as well and also I believe that God
is
yes
old
but also as young
as young as now
so about asking
and
what we ask for tends to be good
which might
surprise
and so
we’ll get that
we will get
the good
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photo by Luise and Nic on Unsplash
faith shares mystery
should persecution follow
is love offered saved
pink and lace and wine
this day as romance might hope
into tomorrow
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photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
2 poems with one poem an expression of thanks then the other a preachy story
given means
someone brought me
food
and others cleared my car
and I imagine that I’ll
lose the space
as soon as I go somewhere
but
I’m thankful
I can eat
and I can move away
when
needed or desired
in the parable
these helpers would be sheep
though busy sheep
helpful
and loving
the givers have the designation
sheep
or goat
and I wonder what
the receivers
such as I might be
maybe
lambs
or kids
Matthew 25:31-46
the one arrives for whom there has been waiting
a story with a king
who dispenses justice
a righteous king
who
has the power with discretion
and the role
given
to play
and shall people be judged
by this wonder who could
be
man or woman
or those gender parts
in God
and so the king
metes
as if the word were ready for this one
alone and
throughout
time
and a throne is
set
the the judgment happens simply
you were me and in
need
and these came to help you
though they needn’t
have known you and you had comfort
even
more life to give
and for the metaphor
I call the helpers
sheep as I
frankly
am the shepherd
and sorry for goats
to call the others goats
and
I guess goats are famous for consuming
and
these goats to judge as people
keeping all
if by degree and giving nothing
not
what would have been easier to share
let alone what might have
been harder
to share
and I must welcome sheep
then
outcast the goats
not
for species judgment
except for those of you
people
whom I made
to whom I gave
but chose
not
to give back or out
toward loving benefit of others
so I judge
and so it is as it was
set
so long ago just after Eden
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same verses
photo by Jay Gomez on Unsplash
all is bias
(all is leaning)
the eyes are too big
in
the portrait
but
everything is bias
everyone
we lean
as the body’s not symmetric
neither are we
in
our views and
causes
and this is what we have
with
no objectivity
rather
wondrous in diversity
no weight to give to false claims
of
reference or authority based
on who we’re not
and
how the world
isn’t
find and claim
our bias
let it matter
then
together
all our views with all our
angles
add up to three-sixty of a planet
of ourselves
and
yes
to know the cosmos better
in the health of all
pluralities
nothing to win
or lie
rather
let an honest process have us understand
express
and progress
toward what’s distinct
and
what’s the same in
us
as
well
everything
when bias is applied
of course
to gain points
or
win the day
we could lie about our biases
to say
I’m with you when
not
as in
politics
or the political
way
to accomplish
anything
until it changes is made
up
and for a style of
lies
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photograph by Juan Cruz Mountford at Unsplash
the day you were born
according to the calendar
and I’ve checked
it more
than once
I was a Thursday child
and so had far
to go
which is a mystery at
least
to me
for
don’t we all have far to go
to get somewhere
in life and maybe
afterlife
in face
that after this is done
does not the distance unfold
grandly
for each one
and
all
so what is far to go
maybe
far to go for satisfaction
for fullness
in breathing and work
(the
work of breathing)
or
maybe for
philosophy to gain and so to carry
through
the trials of thought and feeling
faced in the world
wondrous
fallen
virtuous
Calvinistically depraved
pursuit beyond a declaration
for a nation
or
to help secure it for others
affirm at least when
despotry breaks in
then
attempting to persist
so maybe it is
freedom
and the distance we all have to go
in
service to others
and ourselves
in that
somewhere is far to go
at any rate
metaphor for what’s ahead
and
an assurance that little will happen toward
instant completion
loving and giving
for
Friday’s child
so says
the rhyme
loving and giving as if
starting qualities and to
sustain through
live
and to go for everything that’s needed
to keep going in this way
through
all the time and all phenomena
that happen
requiring
a bounty
I should think of
faith
and confidence
to have the wherewithal for these
and to secure the job
that funds the giving
and
might fortify the loving
so
where should Friday be if not
in a good place and
with resources
all
the time
so who loves and gives in Ukraine
just now or
Gaza
or pick a torn-up
place where one is likely to lose all
and
have to flee
get wounds bound up
also
to deal with loss of health
and companionship
of
family
as well as neighborhood and one’s identity
not only of the circles as
they Venn
but of the single
self
that comes at the beginning and then
knows the joining with the rest
somehow
I think
Bonhoeffer
managed loving and giving through
the rise
the war
the horrors
and the sacrifice of
life
like the prayer of thanks
not
to be a guard
and more so for the pastor’s life
to give it
in the camp so that another
person
live
and so the living and the giving
the worst in the world
plus
the best in spirit
and so
in surfeit or in want
the capacities
for each to
live
as Friday
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was imprisoned and killed in World War 2
photograph by Jon Tyson at Unsplash
VIA SACRA
full of grace
Tuesday’s child
what
kind of grace
I wonder
doctrinal or
looks or
manners as in good at dinner
or knows the steps
for
a party
maybe it’s the kind of luck
that person shall
have
the good kind if not
grand
as things fall together
for school
or work
or family
by belief the certainty of heaven
after
such an afterlife secured for
in feeling by the clear and
dovetailed angel
management
of
life
full of woe
(a Wednesday poem)
finally
some color outside both windows
nothing brilliant but
tingeworthy
and shall there be honest fall
or shall this aspect of climate change
cause too many to fall brown and
withered
from too-soon dessicated
branches the season
unseasonal
went
too hot too long
for riotous autumnal virtue
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photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash
Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival 2018
about ourselves in the world (2 poems)
to each a Compostela
God give me strength
that might seem out of character
to use
and own
measures for repentance
could be new gifts
inside
the grandest one
and how might we be changing
overall
new direction and new purpose
Matthew
or Zaccheus
those who used to fish for fish
Mary M
freed by touch of demons
new presence
new
bearing
new direction
sometimes they seem constant
Esther
Ruth
and
Deborah
sometimes misdirected
from the start
and
there’s no changing
Ahab
or Jezebel
or sometimes they get it wrong
then get it right
and
might still struggle
Moses
say
or Miriam
Jonah who in fact was
angry
to be changed
and where are we in these
each one on
the line
and how to use discretion
maybe grumbling
to change
the answer’s in the question for
each one
and how
we go
circumstances
yes
and how we change through these
going with or
resisting circumstance
to will ourselves
places alone morality
and what shall be our actions
and our
attitudes
to change or stay the same
somehow to plant and move ourselves
like
contrary pilgrims who begin the path
then stop
then start again
diplomat
inside the world
that changes or that stays the same
frankly
too troublesome
regardless
yet we go out
and
then go in
through foreign doors
to introduce ourselves and then
respond
to status quo
or status
as
it might be changing
charged
general or specific
by those back home who send us with
hopes
or maybe lack of interest
like
the indifferent who live allowably
not following
not voting
our care is for these
regardless
and the set of values we call home
to promulgate perhaps
though
maybe reverse-welcome at our stations
greet
those in their own places
hear their causes
hear more
and then respond
checking back
as
needed though bearing initiative
in
the call as well
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photo by Alejandra Rodríguez on Unsplash
2 poems about the new season (more or less)
Bouncy
God
It’s yellow Friday
With blue and brown
On deck
It’s
Spring and time
Not for the metaphor this
Time but
To really
Play some ball
Training
Then the opening
We each can do this
Batter
You know
Up
And I’ve switched audience
Though aren’t you
Always there
(for
an excuse)
Forgive me
And allow me to say
Maybe
To everyone
About
Gospel of play
And did you plays as you ringed
And then rounded
Creation
Maybe
Keep us
Safe
In this new season
Knowing that our choices
Make the difference
Even if
And when
We could turn our will
Toward yours
A wheel
And a wheel within a wheel
But I was thinking baseball
Pitches
Running
And then
The coming home
Green
Workaday
And extraordinary-day
New
Season to you
And to you
Amen
Freedom Ring
The Liberty Bell is cracked
And there were more
Bells
At the time
Ringing freedom
While now we have
The broken bell
For show
And there is wisdom
In admiring the broken
Toward
Kintsugi perhaps
Or to leave in
Pieces
Sometimes for further lack of use
Except in small beholding
Or
When a sizable
Cast bell
To dream on ringing
To dream really large
Sometimes
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Photo by Joe Richmond on Unsplash
two fresh-baked works from ridiculous to personally at least sort-of maybe/maybe not sublime
Ides of March Eve
(or Pie with a Protractor)
3.14
Forget the year
Pi Day
Have some pie
A tasty metaphor
The circumference of
Which
Requires pi
To be determined
All our work in circles
Determined by a number
A function
That’s unsolvable
And yet
We build our arches
We have all our round things
The math might be frustrated
And sorry to
Computers
But our stone tools
Might have worked just fine
Without it
Without pi
Though it’s Pi Day
So let’s have a slice
That has a
Radius
With somehow
A part
Of the arc around
And maybe not get started
On the spheric calculation
Of
Each blueberry
The Morning Rush
Somedays
I wake
And try to make everything
Fit
Starting in my head
Into a style
If not a way
Simply
A few things to like
Some
Favorite flavors
A few items of clothing
Shoes
That fit easily
A car that might need work
No doubt from
Time
To time
But that gets around
From here to there and back
Again
While I may listen to my books
While on the road
A place to live
That’s quiet enough
Normal noise
Allowed
Even preferred
To gravestone silence
A thought
To work
That I can do
Beyond the blogging
Or maybe learn
A dollar
Two dollars
More
From the daily work
With any decent accomplishment
From the crafting and the
Posting
Though I don’t know
It seems skittish on many glassy surfaces
Inside
To consider
More exercise
Less weight
The national pastime that isn’t
Baseball
And with more study
And some interaction with
Like-
Minded people
Too
A church that I might stand
And might stand me
A life with God
That’s
Wel
Not palpable
For now
But authentically affirmed
And stretched out through the hours
Like
Taffy
Or an impossible balloon
Something with taste
(even savor)
Something to enjoy
Even remarkably
And
You know
It will not happen
There’s not enough allowance
Or belief
From the world
Not simply to help
But to permit
Because our life
Force
Is worked on by so many propositions
That become
Well
Impositions
What
To buy
How to vote
What
To believe as coded by
The pundits some of whom
Get elected
And
I’ll keep my faith
Of course
My discomfit with the world
Hoping for a purer
Uncultish Earth
Fitzgerald
This
Side of paradise
Sigh
Keep waking
And keep dreaming after
Waking
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Photo by Kura Tregenza on Unsplash
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